1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to coin-operated vending machines and, more particularly, is concerned with a machine for reliably vending products one at a time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One general type of product that is well-known and universally popular and thus desirable to be able to dispense reliably from a vending machine is a lollipop. The lollipop typically has an elongated thin stick-like handle for gripping by a consumer and a piece of candy of spherical, round or similar shape mounted on one end of the handle and covered by a wrapper of paper or the like prior to the purchase of the product by a consumer. Because of its makeup, the lollipop is difficult to store in large quantities in a vending machine and still be able to reliably and effectively dispense one at a time from the machine.
Vending machines of various constructions have been proposed in the prior art for dispensing a variety of products. Some representative examples of these prior art vending machines are found in U.S. Pat. No. 736,980 to Kneedler, U.S. Pat. No. 3,077,254 to Goldfarb, U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,985 to Perez, U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,822 to Haymond, U.S. Pat. No. 5,472,074 to Milcetic, U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,939 to Tucker, U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,852 to Baker et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,378 to Hart et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,115 to Halliburton, U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,117 to Kovens et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,022 to Mann and U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,151 to Peery et al.
While these prior art device appear to be mostly satisfactory in use for the specific purposes for which they were designed none of them seem to provide an optimum solution to the problem of being able to store large quantities of lollipops while at the same time being able to dispense them reliably one at a time.
Consequently, a need still exists for an innovation which will provide a solution to the aforementioned problem in the prior art without introducing any new problems in place thereof.
The present invention provides a vending machine designed to satisfy the aforementioned need. The vending machine of the present invention incorporates enhanced features for storing and dispensing of products, such as lollipops, in a highly organized and reliable manner. More particularly, the vending machine of the present invention provides a product storage and dispensing magazine and a product separation fixture which rotatably supports the magazine so as to provide enhanced repeatable dispensing of the lollipops from the machine one at a time in response to each user inserting a coin into and turning a knob of a coin deposit station of the machine.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a machine for vending products which comprises: (a) a freestanding housing having upper, middle and lower sections, the lower section including a product discharge station, the middle section defining an opening to the lower section; (b) a product storage and dispensing magazine disposed in the upper section of the housing and having means defining a circular row of vertical channels having lower open ends such that products can be stored in circularly-arranged vertical columns thereof within the vertical channels with the vertical columns of products tending to move and feed downward through the open lower ends of the vertical channels due to the influence of the force of gravity; (c) a magazine indexing drive mechanism disposed in the upper and middle sections of the housing and being drivingly coupled to the magazine and operable to cause rotation of the magazine such that the magazine can be incrementally rotated about a circular path; (d) a product separation fixture disposed in and mounted by the middle section of the housing adjacent to the lower open ends of the vertical channels of the magazine such that the magazine is rotatably supported by the separation fixture and in response to operation of the drive mechanism the magazine rotates relative to the separation fixture and advances in succession lowermost ones of the products in the vertical columns thereof to the opening in the middle section of the housing where the products one at a time fall downward through the opening, the separation fixture overlying the opening and blocking a vertical path to the opening of products from the vertical columns thereof directly above the opening while still allowing passage of the products into the lowermost circular row thereof and one at a time to below the separation fixture and into the opening of the middle section of the housing; and (e) means disposed in the lower section of the housing for receiving a product which drops through the opening of the middle section of the housing and transferring the product through the lower section of the housing and into the product discharge station thereof.
More particularly, the drive mechanism is drivingly coupled to the magazine at spaced apart lower and upper portions of the magazine. The magazine is rotatably supported by the separation fixture by a plurality of ball bearings seated on a central platform of the separation fixture. A resiliently yieldable mechanism is supported on an upstanding annular wall of the separation fixture, extends across the path of the lowermost products and includes is a spring-biased pivotally-movable flap operable to impart a positive downwardly-directed force on the lowermost product that will push it downward toward the opening in the middle section of the housing. Also, portions of the housing and the separation fixture define a path for passage of products to the opening which is located outwardly of and bypasses the indexing drive mechanism.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein there is shown and described an illustrative embodiment of the invention.